Faded Horizons
by Mister L
Summary: Jack, an 18 year old, doesn't want to have a Pokémon journey. He doesn't want to explore the world or become a champion. He just wants to relax in the peaceful New Bark Town, but his mom has other plans. His 10-year old sister wants to get her starter and travel around Johto, and their mother wants Jack to tag along to make sure nothing happens to her. Crazy times ensue.
1. The Great 'Choose Your Starter' Day!

[Nina's House - 8:13 PM]

I sipped my tea as I watched the sunset through the window. The orange rays soaked the fields as the sun slowly disappeared from view.

The day had been great as always. I helped mom out with a few of her errands, watched a bit of TV, lazied around for the rest of the day... yeah, the day was great. And frankly, nothing could ruin it.

I jumped off of the chair I was using as something was shoved on my face. Both the chair and I fell backwards with a loud 'THUD', the tea I was drinking was spilt on both my shirt and the floor of our house.

"AHH! I'M UNDER ATTACK! GLIGAR! IT'S A GLIGAR! AAAAAaaaaaa..." I slowly stopped yelling as I opened my eyes and saw my giggling sister in front of me.

"H-hey there, big bro!" She greeted me, trying to contain her giggles.

"What was THAT for?"

"Here."

She handed me three cards. Each one had a different starter type from Johto, our region.

"Uhm... what's this supposed to be again, exactly?"

"I'm gonna pick cyndaquil!" She excitedly commented, running to my side and pointing at the red card, with informations of the fire mouse.

"That's cool."

"Which one will YOU pick, huh?"

I sighed, looking at her with a bland expression. She already knew my stand on this, so why always try to change it?

"I am 18 and I am far too old for this."

"Nuh uh, there are awesome, like, super powerful trainers out there much older than you!" She said, emphasizing the adjectives and pronouncing them for a longer time than needed.

I sighed again.

"Nina... you know... I'm not a big fan of pokémons..."

"How can you be scared of them? They're so cute!" She shouted.

"I'm not scared of them, I just don't like the thought of leaving our mom and our house behind and just heading to some random city, challenge some random guy and get futile badges for participating in a stupid tournament. Really Nina, if it depends on me, I am never leaving this town."

The door opened, and I heard something that almost made me go pale. Both because of the phrase and who said it.

"Good thing it doesn't depend on you, but on me. Your sister wants to go in a pokémon journey and she is not going alone." Our mom made sure she stressed the 'not' as much as possible.

"Oh... a-and who's going with her?" I questioned."

"You." Our mom responded and my sister shouted as she hugged me.

I was frozen solid.

"... What?"

* * *

[Nina's House (The next day) - 6:07 AM]

Pidgeys chirped outside as the morning sun shone over the small town of New Bark. The streets were almost fully empty, except for a few businesspeople going to work here and there. Murkrow flew from the rooftops of houses and buildings back to their forests to escape the sun's blinding rays.

I was asleep. Some kind of dreamless sleep, you know. There was only darkness. They say this happens because there's a gengar nearby, using you as a food source and eating all your dreams. Sometimes, I wonder if that's true.

I was slowly pulled from my empty dream world as I felt something climb on my bed. I slowly blinked my eyes open and smacked my lips as reality started to overcome my mind and my blank dream faded away.

'SPLASH'

I jumped awake as cold, cold water hit my face. The laughter of my sister made its way inside my ears, piercing my brain and soul.

That little brat.

"Hey! What was that for?" I asked, shouting at her.

"You didn't want to wake up," She said, a smug smile plastered on her face. "So I had to wake you up by other means."

"And pray tell, why did you have to wake me up at..." I looked at my pokéball-shaped alarm clock. "Oh come on Nina! It's six AM!" I shouted again, stressing the 'six'.

"Ahem, six eleven AM." She corrected me.

"Whatever, just... why are you awake this early, huh?" I inquired, honestly curious. She usually only wakes up three hours from now.

"Because I gotta get up early to get my starter with professor Elm, duh!" She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Which, in hindsight, it probably was.

"And mom said you have to go with me! So come on now, bro! Chop chop!" She clapped her hands together and headed outside my bedroom. "I already made our jelly sandwiches, we'll eat on the way to the lab!" She shouted from the hallway.

I groaned and fell back on my now wet pillow.

* * *

[Professor Elm's Laboratory - 6:28 AM]

The door of the laboratory was slammed open, almost hitting a nearby scientist on his way to organize the nearby bookshelf. The other scientists all glared at the young black-haired girl that ran inside, straight towards professor Elm.

Yes, that was the sister I had to grow with. She means well, but is just as careless as a tauros in a porcelain store. As I entered I asked if the scientist she almost hit was okay. He nodded and thanked me for my concern.

I could see professor Elm chuckling and trying to calm my sister down as I approached them. I've only ever seen him on the TV in the rare occasions he appeared on it, but he was just the same. Glasses, short brown hair, white lab coat... in fact, he looked even more like a nerd from up close.

A quick glance at the metalic table by the side of professor Elm and I was able to see the three pokéballs sitting atop it. Their simple yet iconic design was plastered almost everywhere, so there was no way I wouldn't recognize them. They looked like they were just polished, I could see the laboratory, Elm, my sister and I in their reflexion.

"So, have you already decided what starter you want to get, young girl?" Elm asked her. He seemed excited, maybe handing out those starters and seeing the young trainers, some that he taught hinself, must really make one joyous like that.

"Yes! I want cyndaquil, the fire type starter!" My sister shouted, raising her fist to the sky. I couldn't help but smile at her antics.

Elm took the middle pokéball and clicked the button on it. It opened up and a flash of white light flew from it and landed next to us on the floor. The white flash quickly took the form of a cyndaquil.

It curiously looked around, then up at my sister. "Cyyyn!" It happily shouted the first part of his name. I had to admit, it looked adorable.

"In case you're wondering, it's a boy," Elm informed my sister. "I trust you to take good care of him."

My sister had already picked the cyndaquil up and was hugging him, holding him in her arms. She looked at Elm's eyes and nodded. Her expression was serious. In fact, that was probably the most serious face I've ever seen her do.

"Don't worry, professor! I will be the best trainer he could ever have, and will make you proud of me!"

"Cyyyn!"

"Haha, that's what I like to hear!" Elm wholeheartedly laughed and patted my sister's back. He then looked at me, his smile still on his face

"Hmm... would you like a starter as well or are you just accompanying her?"

"Just accompanying."

"He wants a starter." We both said in unison.

"Well, these starters are only for the 10 year olds that come here, I'm sorry."

"Oh, that's... oh man, that's too bad," I said sarcastically. "Seems like I won't be able to go along with you on your journey, Nina."

"Oh no, don't worry about that!" Elm exclaimed, raising a finger up and taking a small pokéball from his pocket. "We have some extra 'starters' with us in case something like this happens!"

"Oh, really, there's no need..." I told Elm, but he didn't back down.

"Don't worry, it won't be any trouble to us. Sadly, we only have a few sentrets with us available to be given to trainers, so you don't really get to 'choose' a starter, but it sure is better than nothing, right?" He handed me the pokéball.

It felt weird, holding one of these for the first time in my life. I pressed the button in the middle of it and it got bigger, as I expected. Another press and the flash of white was out, quickly turning into a sentret.

Just like Cyndaquil, the sentret curiously looked around, and then up at me. It cocked its neck to the side.

"Sentret, he is your new trainer," The Sentret turned to look at Elm, and then back at me. "Boy, she is your new partner." He said with a smile.

"It's Jack." I commented.

"Huh?"

"My name's Jack." I told him.

"Heh, well Jack, it's a pleasure." Elm extended his hand, and I shook it. Suddenly, Nina put her hand above ours while holding Cyndaquil with her left arm. "And I'm Nina!"

The sentret I took out of my Pokéball had climbed up my leg and also put her small paw above Nina's hands. I had to admit, I liked that sentret, it was cute.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Nina!" Elm chuckled. "I wish you two the best of luck with your journey."

"Thanks!" Nina shouted and was already running out. Her cyndaquil had nestled himself on her head.

"Nina! Wait!" I shouted, but she didn't slow down. "Uhm, see you around professor. Thanks for everything!"

"Oh, before you go, here!" He handed me a weird and red handheld device. It looked like a chip, only larger, and it seemed to be openable. "This is a pokédex, it contains information of almost any pokémon. Try using them on wild pokémon you find if you ever need to know more about them. This one is for your sister. Sorry for not having one for you, I was warned a bit too late that you were coming with her."

"It's no problem!" I thanked him and ran after my hasty sister, my newly-received pokémon, Sentret, was holding on to my right arm; I held that arm next to my body so that she wouldn't risk falling.

As I stepped outside, I saw my sister looking marvelled at a potion she was holding.

"Look at what one of those scientists gave me, bro!" She held the potion up to my face. "Isn't this nice?"

"Did you thank them?"

"Of course, duh!" She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, come on! Mom is probably waiting for us with your backpacks!" She started running once again, this time towards our house.

My sentret climbed my arm and nestled herself in my shoulder.

"Well... did you know? We're going to go in an adventure, apparently..." I commented unenthusiastically.

"Sen?"

"Yeap. You'll probably like it, won't you?"

"Sentret."

"Was that a yes or a no?"

"Sentret."

"I don't think we're getting anywhere."

* * *

[Nina's house - 7:02 AM]

I arrived just a few minutes after my sister, it seemed. I did run after her, but not as fast so Sentret wouldn't fall off my shoulder. Her cyndaquil probably had a very strong grip.

Our mom handed my sister a pink packpack, which she already started using, then she handed me a navy blue one of roughly the same size.

"There are some pokéballs and potions inside there, clothes, obviously, and some sleeping sacks. A few packed cookies and wrapped sandwiches, and... yeah, heh, that's it," She said. I noticed she seemed a bit anxious. She hugged my sister and she hugged her back.

"I love you. Take care, alright?" Our mom said as she hugged my sister tightly. My sister hugged her just as tightly "I love you too. And don't worry, bro will take care of me!"

They both stopped hugging, and then I hugged mom myself.

"I love you," I said. "I love you too, son. Take good care of your sister, alright?"

"Alright mom, I will. I promise."

"Sentret!" Sentret saluted. Heh, I guess I'm not alone in my 'quest' to protect Nina.

Nina and I walked away, waving goodbye to our mother as she waved back.

To think that it'd be a long time until I was embraced by her like that again... I would miss her. I would miss her, our house and this town. But now I made a promise, and I won't let my mom down. I will journey with Nina, and I will protect her.

* * *

[Exit of New Bark Town - 7:33 AM]

"Professor Elm told me to hand you this," I said as I gave her her pokédex. "You know what this is, right?"

She didn't answer me, she just kept staring at the horizon.

"It begins today."

"Hmm?"

"Our pokémon journey begins today!"

"Cyndaquiiil!" She shouted excitedly and her cyndaquil tagged along.

I sighed.

"Let's just get this over with, alright?"

We both took our first step into route 29. Into our future. Well, her future... and my unwilling one.

* * *

 **Please, leave a review if you liked (or not). Constructive criticism is always appreciated :)**


	2. An Unlucky Beginning

The grass gently swayed with the breeze. The climate was rather enjoyable. A small gathering of Pidgeys flew away as my sister ran up to them, both she and her cyndaquil were laughing. I failed to see how running into wild pokémon was any fun.

We had been walking for a few minutes, no other person was in sight, only trees, tall grass and wild pokémon running around here and there.

"Don't you think catching one of those pidgeys would be better than scaring them away?" I asked her, wishing to understand why she did that. "I mean, you could at least battle with one of them, it'd help your cyndaquil grow up."

"Oh, come on bro, Cyndaquil and I are just having some fun here!" She said. "Besides, I didn't want to catch any of those pidgeys anyway. I have better plans!"

"Better plans?" That certainly got me interested. "What... kind of better plans? Do you already have a pokémon team in mind?"

"You can bet I have!" She excitedly answered me.

"Oh, seriously? Glad to know you at least put some thought into this! And what would they be, huh?"

"I'm not telling you, it's a secret!" She replied. "If I tell you, my dream team won't come true!"

"I... thought that was only for birthday wishes. Pokémon don't work like that." I replied, shaking my head to the sides.

"Well, I'd rather not risk it. Better safe than sorry, right?" She said. I would argue further, but knowing my sister it would be pointless and would only slow us down, and the less time we take in this 'journey', the merrier. "Now come on, we gotta get to Cherrygrove City!" She continued enthusiastically, and was going to start running again, but I held her arm, stopping her from doing so.

"Hey, no running this time. Mom sent me in this journey with you to protect you after all, and what will I do if I can't catch up with you, huh? What if a wild pokémon appears and hurts you?" I was honestly getting tired from all the running, my body wasn't made for such physical activities. Besides, my sister could seriously get hurt around here, you never know what kind of pokémon can be lurking in the tall grass.

"Then Cyndaquil would protect me!" She shouted in reply. "Besides, we can't waste time here, we have to go to the next city as quickly as possible!"

"Why the haste?" I asked. "I thought I was the one who wanted to end this fast, not you.

"Because I want to get my first badge before Julia gets her, now let's go!"

"Wait, wait a second, who's Julia?"

My sister crossed her arms and huffed, seeming a bit irritated by my question, or maybe by the person I mentioned. "She's a girl from my class that thinks she can do anything just because she has money. I got tired one day and told her I could easily beat her in a pokémon journey, and she challenged me..."

"She challenged you?" I think I remember my sister complaining about this Julia to our mom here and there, but I never really paid attention to her school rambles. "Huh... and what was the challenge exactly?"

"The first one to get a badge first would be the winner and receive two thousand pokédollars from the loser!" She said enthusiastically. Did she listen to herself? Two thousand pokédollars? That was quite a lot of money. Money we shouldn't give away just like that.

"Did you seriously bet two thousand pokédollars with this girl? Are you crazy Nina?" I asked her, more angrily than I probably should have. I was quite irritated at what she did and I couldn't conceal that very well. "What if you don't get the badge first, huh? Then what?"

"But I will get my badge first, bro! But only if we hurry to Violet City!" She said, grabbing my arm and trying to drag me down the dirt path towards Cherrygrove City.

"Battling gyms isn't easy, Nina, you'll have to train your cyndaquil a lot if you want to win." I stated matter-of-factly. "So this is the reason why you woke me up so early, huh? It wasn't because you were anxious to get your starter, you just wanted to have a head-start on this challenge!"

"N-no! No! Definitely not... exactly... well, maybe..." She stopped trying to drag me and sighed.

"Look, we can't lose all that money, so you better start training now." I told her. I wasn't as angry as before, but was still very annoyed at what she did. Much more now that I found out I could've slept longer.

"No, first we need to get to Violet City! Then I'll start training there if I can't beat the gym leader!"

"Sen..." Sentret started pulling my hair, but I chose to ignore her and focus on my sister. "Look, getting there fast won't be of any use if your cyndaquil can't take on the pokémon there.

Nina sighed again. "True... but can we at least get to Cherrygrove before we start training?"

"Sentret..." Sentret pulled a bit harder this time, but I chose to keep ignoring her. "Sure, sure... as long as you actually train and defeat the gym leader."

"Alright!" My sister put both her fists in the air and turned to me, "Let's get this show on the road then!"

"Sentret!" Sentret pulled my hair harder this time, and pointed upwards. Now that I stopped paying full attention to my sister I could see a black blur approaching us way too fast for my liking.

In a matter of seconds the black blur grabbed my sister's backpack and yanked it off her. By then I could see that the black blur was actually a murkrow... a murkrow that was trying to steal my sister's backpack!

"Hey! Stop right there!" I shouted at it, but it didn't seem to work. "I said stop!" I shouted again. They obviously weren't scared by my shouts.

"Hey! That's MY backpack!" I could hear my sister shouting as well. Suddenly, I feel a tug from behind and a weight being removed off my back.

I quickly turn around to see two extra murkrows, one was weirdly pink instead of the usual black. Could that be a shiny murkrow? Wait, no, now isn't the time to pay attention to something like that.

"Cyndaquil, use tackle!" My sister shouted. Cyndaquil tried to tackle the murkrow carrying her bag, but the bird just flew out of the way. Cyndaquil hit nothing but air, and fell down on the ground.

My sister gasped. "Cyndaquil! Are you okay?" She hurriedly ran up to him and held him in her arms. "Cyndaaa..."

I looked back at the murkrows, and they seemed to be... laughing. Not only were they taking our stuff, but they were also making fun of us?

Unpleasant memories started seeping into my mind and I tried my hardest to block them. Now was not the time to be stuck in the past. I needed to clear my head and think fast. Think, Jack, think... they seemed to be faster than Cyndaquil and Sentret, meaning a battle probably wouldn't end well... and it's not like Nina and I can fly to catch them... so what could we do...

I feel something tugging my arm as I start to pay attention to my surroundings once again. I was trying so hard to think of a plan I seemed to have zoned out a bit.

"Bro, they're flying away! With our stuff!" Nina started trying to drag me off the trail and towards the trees, which likely led to some small woods. "We need to run after them!" She continued.

The woods didn't seem to be that far away from the trail, and the murkrow were almost entering them. If we didn't run fast, we might lose sight of them, so I nodded and ran with her, trying not to let them escape my view.

It was harder to keep track once we entered the woods. They separated and started zigzagging between trees and branches. Nina and I were starting to get tired, and we knew we wouldn't be able to keep running.

We both stopped and sat down on the ground, tired of the running we did. Nina didn't seem as bad as me, though. I definitely wasn't accustomed to this kind of thing.

"I'm... huff... I'm sorry, Sentret... huff... for not... for not listening to you." I apologized, knowing that if I had paid attention to her we probably wouldn't be in this mess.

"Sen tret." She pat my head. Heh, I guess that was her way of saying 'apology accepted'.

"I don't understand..." My sister muttered. "Aren't murkrow only attracted by shining things?" She asked me, grabbing her pokédex from her pant's pocket. "Then why did they steal our backpacks? There wasn't anything shiny on them, was there?" She questioned me further

"I don't think so... I- I really don't know why they would do that. Maybe it's a sign, Nina. Maybe we should go back home and forget about this journey thing. Don't worry, I'll work to get you the two thousand pokédollars you'll need to pay Ju... Ju..."

"Julia." My sister completed the name of the girl for me.

"Yes, Julia, thanks." Wasn't seeing Murkrow during the day a bad omen? Or was it during the night? Wasn't there a number too? One or more? Hmm... "Did you notice there was a shiny one with them?" I asked Nina.

"How could I not! He was so colorful compared to the others, it was impossible not to notice it... ah hah! Found it!" She exclaimed and clicked a button in her pokédex.

"Murkrow, the darkness pokémon," The dex said out loud with its robotic voice. "Seen as a symbol of bad luck, it's generally disliked. Yet it gives presents—objects that sparkle or shine—to trainers it's close to." It continued.

"Yeah... that doesn't help much..." I said, then got up. "Looks like we'll have to go back and-"

"No! No! Wait!" My sister interrupted me. "It mentioned trainers it's close to, so maybe they're going to give it to their trainer?"

"Do you really think they have a trainer?" I asked her, highly doubting that pribability. "They're probably just wild murkrow stealing stuff from passerbys for fun." I continued and started walking back, towards the exit of the woods.

My sister only sighed and walked to my side, muttering a silent "Maybe you're right..." by my side. I'm glad this journey thing is going to be short-lived.

At least, I thought it would be. As soon as we exited the woods we heard someone shouting. A youngster was being attacked by the same murkrow! They also took his backpack and flew back into the woods. Nina and I ran up to the boy to check if he was okay.

"They came outta' nowhere!" The boy shouted. "Like, I was just here, minding my own business... when suddenly... BOOM!" He hit his fist into his open palm for effect. "Murkrows everywhere! I didn't even have time to react!"

"Ugh... they got us too..." I said, looking upwards, searching for the murkrow in the bright-blue morning sky. I didn't take long to find them, thanks to that pinky one. They were heading for the woods again.

"Come on, we have no time to waste!" Nina said. "We need to run after those thieves!"

"Nina, we already tried that," I sighed, and continued. "We both know how well that went."

"But maybe this time it will end differently!" She shouted, and started running after those stupid birds and into the woods again. "You never know!"

The youngster looked at me for a few seconds, then at the woods. He then proceeded to quickly run after my sister. "Wait for me!" He shouted. "I've got important stuff in that backpack!"

* * *

Once again, Nina and I went after the birds who stole our backpack, this time joined by a youngster who met the same fate as ours.

And, once again, we weren't succesful.

I leaned against a tree as I panted. Sentret was leaning on my head, getting a bit more rest since she was woken early by me in professor Elm's lab. My sister and her cyndaquil were panting, though I didn't understand why Cyndaquil was tired if she did all the running. Maybe it was hard for him to hold onto her as she ran?

My train of thought was interrupted as the youngster who was with us decided to speak out. "How... are those things... so... freaking... fast..." He had to stop his sentence here and there to gasp for air.

"The problem isn't that they are fast, but rather that they can fly," I commented. "We are at a disadvantage in this kind of terrain."

"Man, I bet we'd be able to track them if we had a bird pokémon of our own to help us out..." The youngster lamented. I took what he said as an opportunity to complain about my sister's decisions earlier. "Oh, yeah, like a pidgey, huh?" I looked at my sister to see her rolling her eyes at me.

"We could wait until they attack again for us to-" My sister was saying, but I interrupted her sentence. "What if there's no next time, huh? Besides, they'll just outfly us again. Let's just rest for now... I'll think of something." I said as I closed my eyes and sat down, carefully so as not to disrupt Sentret. I tend to focus better when I get alone with my thoughts.

A cool breeze passed us by, my short brown hair swayed with it. I tried to ignore the outside world and listen only to my thoughts, but there were too many cries of bug and bird pokémon for me to focus.

All I could think of was to catch a bird pokémon and have it help us. I also thought about asking the boy if he had anything shiny with him to bait the murkrow, but we'd probably just lose them again.

I opened my eyes and looked at the resting boy. He was sprawled on the ground, looking at the canopy and the little of the sky that was available for us to see as the trees blocked part of our view.

"I'm Jack," I said, and nodded my head towards my sister, even though the boy wasn't looking at me. "And the happy-go-lucky girl there is Nina, my sister." She too was resting on the ground with her cyndaquil, though farther away from the youngster. "What's your name?" I asked him.

The youngster sat up and looked at me. "Oh yeah! I was so caught up with the moment that I forgot to introduce myself! I'm so sorry!" He scratched the back of his head and smiled awkwardly. "My name's Matthew, but my friends call me Matt. I wish we could've met in a much better circumstance than this..."

"Ditto. But, sometimes, things simply happen, and as much as we try to avoid them, life just forces you into its crazy plans." I commented, trying to be a bit phylosophical like how my father used to be at times, but seemingly failing, in my view.

"You'd know that, wouldn't you bro?" My sister commented, giggling. It was my turn to roll my eyes now. "Oh, shut up..." I said, though not really meaning it.

"Make me." My sister responded smugly. I started to hear a faint sound coming from the path we came from, though I couldn't quite indentify what it was.

"No, seriously now, shut up," I told her, trying to focus on just what was the sound I was hearing.

My sister sat up and looked at me. "I said make me!" She sounded angry, which wasn't exactly normal for her, so I decides to quickly explain myself.

"I can hear something coming from over there," I pointed towards the entrance of the woods. "That's why I asked for silence."

Both my sister and Matt stopped to listen.

"Are those..." Matt started the phrase. "Footsteps?" And my sister completed it.

"Seems like it... they seem to be approaching pretty fast too." After I said that, two figures became visible in the distance, one slightly larger than the other. They were running up to us, and they seemed to have a small bird acconpanying them.

"Alright! Lead the way, Spearow!" Shouted the larger figure that was running towards us, which I now could recognize as another youngster. Alongside him ran a younger boy, probably a pre-schooler. I'd guess it was probably his younger brother, or maybe just a friend.

"Spear!" Cried the bird pokémon as it flew ahead, both it and the two boys ran past us. I immediately got up, waking Sentret up in the process, she releated a short version of her name and held on to me. My sister and Matthew also got up.

"I bet those murkrow stole their stuff as well!" My sister shouted. "Yeah! Come on, let's run after them!" Matthew shouted, and they both started running after the two boys and the spearow.

"Hey, guys! Wait! What if they aren't after the murkrow? Then what?" I shouted, but got no response. Then again, what else could they be after? They were likely hunting down the criminal murkrow. That was probably just me, still hoping there was a way to end this madness and go back home before something worse happened.

I shook my head and sighed. Too bad, Jack. I guess there's no turning back... I started running after them. I wouldn't be laughed at and stolen by a band of low-level murkrow without fighting back.

"Sen! Sentret!" From the side of my view I could see Sentret on my shoulder with an outstretched paw. She seemed to be pointing onwards. Maybe that was her way of saying 'Let's go'?

I easily caught up with Matthew and my sister as I ran, though I was panting quite a lot. I did more running in the short time I've been on this journey than in my entire life. And I was just exagerating a bit. Maybe.

After a few more minutes we could see a light by the end of the woods. It seemed like we were nearing the exit. The two boys were there, seemingly in a fighting stance, with their spearow flying above them, flapping its wings like mad to stay in the air.

When we finally caught up to them we stood by their side, and what I saw made me open my mouth in shock.

There was a large pile of bags, backpacks, pokéballs ranging from normal pokéballs and premier balls to even ultra balls. Lots of potions and other healing items were there, aside from other normal, random items.

In the top of the mountain of likely stolen belongings laid a man with long black hair and a scratched purple shirt and pants. He wore a black hat resembling a murkrow's 'hat' and a collar of black murkrow feathers around his neck, with a pink feather in the middle of it.

One of the boys who we followed turbed towards us. He seemed to be searching for something. "Bro," he started. "Where's that boy that was following us? The one with the green hair?"

"Huh, I've no idea," His brother replied. "But let's worry about him later. We've got something bigger to deal with now."

The strange man got up from his pile of stolen goods, and the murkrow that previously stole our things flew from the trees behind us to just in front of the man's loot pile. Call it a hunch, but I think that's the guy who's making those murkrow steal things from passerbys.

"Well, well, well... look at what my little murkrow brought me!" He climbed down the pile and stood in front of us. A grin plastered on his face.

"Yeah, they seemed to have mistakenly brought you our stuff," I commented, stressing the 'our'. "Would you be so kind as to give it all back to us? Please and thank you."

"Oh ho ho! You're a sassy one! How cute!" The weird murkrow man chuckled while looking at me, he brought his hand up to his chin in a thoughtful manner. "And also stupid. Acting that way towards me will only lower your chances of getting anything back."

"What do you mean lower his chances?" My sister asked. "You stole OUR stuff and now you'll give it back!" The others who were with us joined in, saying 'Yeah!', 'That's right!' and phrases of the like. Even Cyndaquil and Sentret joined them by repeating their names.

"It can be yours if you pay me a small sum of pokédollars for them... depending of the size of the bag and its contents." The thief said, his smug grin was ever so present.

"Excuse me?" I blurted out involuntarily. "We won't be paying for OUR stuff!"

"Well then, feel free to walk away. No pay, no bag, brother," He said, approaching his face to mine. He then took a step back and turned his face to the side. "If you brats aren't here to do business, then scram. Murkrow, get rid of them for me, will you?"

As soon as he said that, his murkrows' beaks started to shine brightly and tgey headed down towards us. Was he honestly telling his pokémon to use 'peck' on us?

"Spearow," yelled the older youngster we followed up to here. "Don't let them get to us! Use peck too!" "Spear!" As soon as he said that, his spearow started flapping his wings more fiercely and his beak also started glowing white.

"Cyndaquil, if a murkrow gets too close then hit it with a tackle!" "Cyn! Cyn!"

So, a pokémon battle? Is this what this is turning into? Well, I guess I better try to help too, if it's the least I can do.

"You too, Sentret!" I said. "Jump and use scratch on any murkrow that gets too close!" Sentret nodded in agreement. "Sen!" She replied, although I couldn't understand her.

"Oh, you kids just started your journey I bet. There is no way your weak pokémon will do any damage to my powerful murkrows!" The thief shouted. He was really starting to annoy me, not only did he steal our stuff, he was taunting us too now. I really wanted to show him a piece of my mind.

But as much as I wanted to punch him... he was right. His murkrows were clearly much faster than our pokémon, they were dodging almost every single one of our attacks. At least our pokémon were managing to keep them away somewhat, but for how long?

Surprising both us, the thief and the pokémon, a razor leaf attack came from the right-side of the forest, hitting the murkrow. The hit seemed to have been more effective due to the surprise, and the murkrow fell on the ground. Our pokémon used this as an opportunity to land their attacks. Cyndaquil, Sentret and Spearow all headed towards them and started using their attacks, not giving the murkrows any chance to counter attack.

A chikorita came out of the spot where the razor leaf attack was used, together with a young green-haired boy wearing a yellow shirt with a simplistic sun designed on it and blue jeans. The younger boy that we followed here pointed at the green-haired boy. "Oh, THERE he is!" He said. "I was wondering where you went!"

The chikorita boy smiled and waved, I looked back at the murkrow to see their eyes had turned into spirals, that was a clear sign they had fainted. I then looked at the thief, who was looking at his murkrows worriedly. He reached his arms in front of him and called them back to their pokéballs.

The thief looked down at the ground for a minute before trying to hold as many bags and items as he possibly could in his arms. "You'll never take me alive!" He shouted as he tried to run away, deeper into the woods, but the chikorita wrapped its vines around his legs, making him fall down and drop the stolen things around.

We all ran up to the pile of stolen items, even the green-haired boy, and started scavenging through to try and find our belongings.

While Matthew and the other two youngsters found their stuff on the loot pile, I didn't. A better look around revealed that my backpack and Nina's bag were on the ground next to the thief. I quickly went and took them with me.

The green-haired boy's backpack also seemed to be laying next to the thief, since he kneeled to get it. It was black with the design of a great ball in its middle.

"It's nice to see you're already up and about in your adventure, Nina!" Said the green boy. But, wait, how did he know my sister?

"Heh, thanks Sean! And you too! So that's the starter you picked?" My sister asked. I was starting to suspect they were probably classmates, since they seemed to be about the same age.

"Yes he is! Awesome, right?" His Chikorita rose his neck, probably enjoying all the praise he was receiving. My sister whipped her pokédex from her pocket and pointed the camera at the grass-type starter.

"Chikorita, the leaf pokémon," It started in its usual monotone robotic voice. "In battle, Chikorita waves its leaf around to keep the foe at bay. However, a sweet fragrance also wafts from the leaf, becalming the battling Pokémon and creating a cozy, friendly atmosphere all around."

"Wow, that's super cool!" My sister commented excitedly. "He can make friends of his rivals just by waving his leaf around!"

Sean, who seemed to be the green-haired boy, chuckled and then looked at me. "So, this is your brother, right? Jack?"

"That'd be me." I said. "Are you one of my sister's classmates?"

"Not only classmate, but friend too!" He said, a grin forming on his face. "We're both aiming to become champions. I hope to see her at the league."

"You sure will!" Replied my sister.

"Alright, but first things first, we should call the Cherrygrove City's police to deal with..." I turned towards the thief, only to notice an empty vine. "Oh no..."

The others followed my stare to notice the missing thief. Sean's chikorita seemed sad with himself for not having noticed he let the thief escape.

"... Still," I started. "Someone should call the police and stay here to tell them what happened and give them these stolen bags and items. They'll know what to do."

"Why can't you do that?" Matthew asked me. "I mean, you're the oldest one out of us."

"I'd love to, but my sister and I really need to get to Violet City as fast as possible."

"Violet City?" Sean asked curiously. "Why?"

"Remember the bet I made with Julia?" My sister tried to remind him. "I can't let her win."

"Oh, heh, then you better hurry." Sean said after chuckling. "She's already in Cherrygrove City. Or so I've heard."

"WHAT?!" She shouted loudly. I imagined that was probably how a scared whismur would yell.

Giving me no time to react, Nina started running towards where we came from, yelling a quick goodbye to everyone.

I sighed and waved to the others present there. "Goodbye and good luck with everything Sean, Matthew, uhm..." I turned to the youngsters who led us to the thief.

"Zachary!" The younger one introduced himself happily. "And I'm Harry!" Said the older one.

"Well, to you two, my best regards." I said and pointed my fingers to them like a gun. I don't remember when exactly doing that became common, and I didn't know if people still did it or not, but it became an old habit of mine. Hard to drop.

As I ran to the exit of the woods, I found my sister there, tapoing her foot on the ground impatiently. "Thank goodness! I thought I'd have to go back there and drag you with me!"

"Well, what are we waiting for? If this Julia really is in Cherrygrove City then we need to hurry."

My sister nodded and started running ahead. I followed after her, hoping this journey wouldn't be as eventful as this beginning was.

Here's to a future rid of murkrows, thieves and running...


End file.
